As I said before, I had anxiety and panic attacks for 12 years and didn’t know what it was. I think it was so difficult to diagnose because the symptoms evolved over the years. At first, I felt my heart beating very fast and I thought my blood pressure was high. After several years, I got dizzy all of the time. Then the dizziness evolved into nausea. Then I began to have digestion problems including heartburn. These symptoms increased in frequency and progressively got worse. By the time I realized that I had anxiety and panic disorder, I had a slew of symptoms that I was trying to diagnose individually.
I believe that for the millions of people who know they have anxiety and panic disorder, there are millions more that have no clue. They just feel bad all the time. They think they have a disease, or something worse – like cancer or dying. They, like I was, are probably searching for the answer to their body aches, pains, odd and uncomfortable feelings.
Commonly, the symptoms of anxiety are listed as:
- Heart palpitations
- Fatigue
- Nausea
- Chest pains
- Shortness of breath
- Stomach aches
- Headaches
The common symptoms of panic attack are:
- Increased or rapid heart rate
- Perspiration
- Dizziness
- Shortness of breath
- Trembling or shaking uncontrollably
I think these “common” symptoms are important to know, however, there are many other symptoms which some experts don’t talk about. It’s important to note that their aren’t just physical symptoms. This is a psychological condition and as such, there are many psychological symptoms as well.
The difference between anxiety and panic symptoms are in the intensity of the symptoms. Thus, someone with anxiety can feel an uncomfortably increased heart rate, but in a panic state, the heart is racing wildly. My mostly complete list of symptoms for anxiety and panic are:
- Racing heart – sometimes, though rarely in my experience, including palpitations
- Chest discomfort
- Trembling or shaking uncontrollably
- Nausea
- Hot and Cold Flashes
- Perspiration – sweating
- Feeling of wanting to run somewhere safe or be with someone safe
- Headaches
- Being angry for no reason – maybe even realizing you have no reason to be angry, yet continuing a rage and breaking stuff anyway.
- Dizziness
- Feeling of being above yourself, dislocated
- Feeling of unreality
- Disorientation
- Feeling of doom
- Spasms in the back or chest
- Tightness in the chest or stomach
- Micro pains in the chest, back or stomach
- Constant tension in the chest, back, stomach, neck or face
- Dull pains, like a bruise, in the stomach, back or chest.
- Depression
- Fatigue
- Coldness or clammy feeling in the hands, back or triceps
- Pit in the stomach
- Feeling like you need to burp but can’t – Odd sensation in the stomach
- Feeling of helplessness
- Heartburn
- Indigestion
- Diarrhea
- Migraine headaches
- Numbness in various parts of the body like the arms, hands and back
- Strange aches and pains – Some flu like, in the bones, while others are in the muscle
- Shortness of breath
- Feeling of not being able to breathe
- Feeling of not being able to swallow
- Feeling of something stuck in your throat
- Uncontrollable thoughts of concern over body sensations
- Feeling faint
- Feeling like you are “losing your mind” or “going crazy”
- Feeling like you are having a heart attack and mentally comparing this experience to all of the heart attacks you have seen on T.V., in the Movies or read about
- Feeling like your heart is tired
- Uncontrollable thoughts about your heart or lungs. Maybe these aren’t scary, but they have a negative effect
- Feeling run down and tired directly in your chest or back
- Feeling like you are dying
- Uncontrollable scary thoughts
- Uncontrollable thoughts of dying
- Uncontrollable thoughts of having a disease
- Uncontrollable negative thoughts of all kinds
I included uncontrollable negative thoughts of all kinds because, for instance, when I walked, I would worry about twisting my ankle. Almost with each step I would be overly concerned with my ankle. I would see myself rolling my foot over and my ankle touching the ground. I would fall, and the pain would be excruciating. This would cause me to tense my ankle to brace against twisting it. By the time I would finish walking, my ankle would be very sore from the constant tension. I knew I was doing it, but I couldn’t stop the thoughts that were coming into my head about it. I finally was able to stop it when I recognized it and trained myself much like you train a dog to heal. Every time I had the thought, I would stop and right my mind and force my ankle to relax before I would go on. There were many walks where I stopped 20 – 30 times.
Even though this list is much more inclusive than most standard lists of anxiety symptoms, I still don’t feel it is complete because we all are individuals and have different experiences and backgrounds. Symptoms might manifest in slightly different ways. The main way people I know have found out that they have anxiety and panic disorder is by going to the doctor and having the doctor run tests. All kinds of tests. When the tests all came back negative, meaning they were perfectly healthy, then the doctor suggested that it could be anxiety.
My hope is that people who have one of these symptoms might find this information on the Internet and realize that it is just anxiety and panic they are experiencing. Then, they should go to the doctor and have the doctor run tests and give them a physical. Once they have been given a clean bill of health by the doctor, they can work on themselves and their feelings.
The most important thing to remember when it comes to anxiety and panic disorder is: it’s psychosomatic. In other words, it’s your thoughts that are creating the sensations, including pain, in your body. Just like my ankle. It was my constant concern and thoughts about twisting my ankle that caused me to tense it until it stiffened and ached. Cause and effect. The list of symptoms above is a list of effects. The cause in every case is an overactive mind focused entirely on negative imaginings.
If you have any other symptoms that you would like to add to this list, please contact me at: michael@millerhypnosisatlanta.com
